Heading into 2014, analyst firm IDC believes there are 18.5 million software developers in the world, of which 11 million are professional software developers and 7.5 million are hobbyist developers.

IDC also said that there are 29 million ICT-skilled workers in the world, including professional software developers and 18 million operations and management skilled workers.

“IDC’s country-by-country analysis of 90 of the most developed countries in the world, representing 97 percent of the world’s GDP, is unique in the industry as it provides the only bottom-up model of the world’s developer and ICT-skilled workers,” said Al Hilwa, program director for application development software at IDC.

IDC’s analysis shows that the United States accounts for 19 percent of worldwide software developers, both professional and hobbyists, followed by China with 10 percent and India with 9.8 percent.

The United States also accounts for 22 percent of worldwide ICT-skilled workers, followed by India with 10.4 percent and China with 7.6 percent.

“While the numbers of both developers and ICT-skilled workers are expected to grow over the next few years, shifts in how IT is being delivered through cloud services will favor the growth in developers over other ICT-skilled workers,” said Hilwa.

Additionally, the population of hobbyist developers is rapidly changing and the growth of this segment is being boosted by the mobile revolution.